I have been working on some flies for my son to take to WY for a NOLS course he is going to attend. Most of the suggested patterns were ones that I already tie, or at least had tied at some time except the mosquito. I ended up trying about a half a dozen patterns but settled on these first two. I tried biot bodies, quill stem bodies, and one light and one dark moose hair body. I ended up liking the moose hair body, with the moose hair tail the best. I think it will be more durable and float better than a hackle tail fiber. Some had down wings and some have traditional upright hen tip wings. I ended up tying him a few of each.

Moose hair one light, one dark, up wing, moose tail

Down wing, moose hair one light, one dark, moose tail

Up wing, grizzly hackle stem body. The stem may be the most durable, but it just looked too dark and lacked segmentation.

Those flies are beauties! My favorite fly is the dry and the toughest to fish. One problem I have noticed with small dry flies is that sit too high on the surface. This makes it almost impossible to identify unless it drifts right over the fish's snell window due to refraction.

One tip you might want to consider is to trim your lower hackle to sit the fly lower in the film. This will help accentuate the profile to the trout.

Also; I like to wrap a bit of silver wire on the gape of the hook.

Here is an example of the idea I am trying to explain previously. The picture is of an adult mayfly that I took a few months back...Hope this helps with some of your patterns.

*PS-Also, I like to use wet or nymph hooks for my dries. This helps the body to sit better in the film.

I took shawn's advice and applied it to my own tying of flies.......excellent advice......more hookups....more fish......thanks for the tip......just thought I would bump the thread........any more tips would be greatly appreciated...from any and all..........

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadisonBoats

Those flies are beauties! My favorite fly is the dry and the toughest to fish. One problem I have noticed with small dry flies is that sit too high on the surface. This makes it almost impossible to identify unless it drifts right over the fish's snell window due to refraction.

One tip you might want to consider is to trim your lower hackle to sit the fly lower in the film. This will help accentuate the profile to the trout.

Also; I like to wrap a bit of silver wire on the gape of the hook.

Here is an example of the idea I am trying to explain previously. The picture is of an adult mayfly that I took a few months back...Hope this helps with some of your patterns.

*PS-Also, I like to use wet or nymph hooks for my dries. This helps the body to sit better in the film.

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Here I walk slowly, deliberately, taking it one step, one trout, one sunset at a time. -Harry Middleton